Can You Really Live on Wild Food? Robin Greenfield Is! | Food Freedom

Jan 6, 2026

Join Robin Greenfield, an activist and forager dedicated to food resilience, as he shares his radical journey away from the industrial food system. He discusses the profound concept of 'food freedom' experienced during a year of foraging and living purely on wild foods. Robin outlines the challenges, including calorie planning and ethical foraging, while emphasizing the importance of community support. He reveals his favorite wild staples and the mental health benefits of foraging, inviting curiosity and connection to nature.

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INSIGHT

Food As The Central Connection

Food sits at the center of culture, health, and our relationship with Earth.
Robin Greenfield says reconnecting with food reveals the environmental and personal impact of our choices.

ANECDOTE

From Marketing To Food Activism

Robin left a material, marketing-driven life after watching Food Inc. and reading The Omnivore's Dilemma.
That awakening triggered his decade-long experiments in growing, foraging, and food-centered activism.

ADVICE

Master The Full Food Stack

Learn every step: calories, protein, fat, flavor, medicines, and salt production.
Practice preserving via dehydration, freezing, fermenting, and water-bath canning to store harvests safely.

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This episode is a conversation with Robin Greenfield, activist, forager, and author of Food Freedom. Robin has spent years experimenting with what it means to step outside the industrial food system, first by growing and foraging all of his food for a year, and now by eating only wild food. In this conversation, we explore what food freedom actually looks like in practice, the role of community, and why food sits at the center of ecological and personal resilience.

Episode Overview:

Robin’s background and journey away from the industrial food system
Why food became the central focus of his activism and life experiments
What “food freedom” meant during his year of growing and foraging all of his food
The real challenges of food freedom, including time, processing, and preservation
Why community support is essential for living closer to the land
What motivated Robin to take the next step and eat only wild food for an entire year
How he plans calories, protein, fat, and nutrients on a wild food diet
Key wild food staples including wild rice, venison, fish, nuts, fruits, greens, and herbs
The hardest parts of eating wild food, including fat scarcity and food storage mistakes
How seasonality and travel shape his wild food strategy
Ethical foraging and reciprocity, including harvesting invasive species
Why learning individual plants matters more than following blanket foraging rules
How foraging can deepen connection, purpose, and gratitude for the natural world
Practical advice for beginner foragers who want to start building food resilience

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